[Sigiii-l] [Fwd: Information Technology in Developing Countries-February 2008 issue]

[M.J. Menou]

-------- Message original --------
Sujet: 	Information Technology in Developing Countries-February 2008 issue
Date: 	Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:31:48 +0530
De: 	IFIP Newsletter <ifipnewsletter at iimahd.ernet.in>
Pour :: 	 deleted



Dear Subscriber,

Warm Greetings! The February 2008 issue of ‘Information Technology in 
Developing Countries’ is now available at: 
http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/current.htm

The current issue of Information Technology in Developing Countries 
carries six articles that discuss aspects of ICT related to society, 
health, education and employment, a post-conference report, two book 
reviews, and announcements of forthcoming conferences and the launch of 
an e-governance program in India. The first article "Mobile Phones 
Bridging Socio-Economic Divide" by Dr. Sharifah Mariam Alhabshi focuses 
on how the youth could be prime motivators for economic expansion and 
progress, and help to bridge the cultural divide through the use of 
Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This paper is founded on 
the belief that unprecedented advancements in ICT, particularly in the 
field of telecommunication devices such as the mobile phone, could 
facilitate a dramatic paradigm shift among youth, which would in turn 
facilitate progress towards the long-term development of nations. This 
paper further emphasizes that the key to developing more positive youth 
mindsets lies in interactions with people beyond the limitations of 
their own village, city or even country, and that an appreciation of 
such diversity would help youth foster a concept of reality beyond their 
own sphere of existence.

In his article "Computer Education in Uganda", Raphael Schneeberger 
examines the image of computers and associated expectations (with 
special emphasis on the aspect of power and influence) among computer 
skilled people and teachers. This case study sketches the results of the 
author's Ph.D. thesis and is based on insights derived from his study of 
a computer project at a primary school in South-West Uganda that 
involved teaching 300 people the basics of computing. The third article 
"Health Informatics – Where to Start?" by Ron Hebert addresses the 
challenges faced by India in the public health sector, and suggests an 
affordable and sustainable approach that countries like India can take 
towards improving the overall condition of this sector, and making ICT 
measures more effective.
The fourth article, by G. K. Agrawal, discusses the setting up of 
"Village Knowledge Centers / Common Service Centers" under the umbrella 
of the ambitious National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) being implemented by 
the Government of India. These service centers are expected to provide a 
wide range of government and private e-services, based on local 
community needs and requirements. The article also highlights the 
problems faced by Panchayati Raj Institutions in deployment of the 
necessary IT systems. This article is followed by a report of the second 
International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and 
Development (ICTD) held in Bangalore, India. Jennifer Bussell reports on 
this multi-disciplinary conference that drew more than 200 individuals 
from around the world, and discusses the broad themes and issues that 
emerged during the conference.

Dr. Avani Maniar and Shivani Mehta’s article features a "Website for the 
Active Aging" that provides the elderly an opportunity to share their 
knowledge and expertise with the world, and to obtain productive 
employment even after retirement. The article tries to draw attention to 
a very important segment of our society, and shows how ICT can be used 
to cater to the needs of the unwanted segment (elderly people) at an age 
when they feel that they should get the opportunity to share their 
knowledge and expertise with the world, thus in a way reducing their 
dependence on others. The next article is a brief compilation of the 
discussion on "Drinking Water Case Studies Using ICT Tools - Examples" 
that was carried out in response to a query cross posted by the Water 
Community with the ICT for Development Community on Solution Exchange, a 
UN initiative for development practitioners in India. Solution Exchange 
connects the members of these and other communities and increases the 
effectiveness of their individual efforts, helping them to share and 
apply each other’s knowledge and experience.

D.C. Misra's review of "Electronic Engagement: A Guide for Public Sector 
Managers" authored by Peter Chen provides a critical analysis of the 
book. The second book review by Elaine Freedman on "Blogs, Wikis, 
Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" authored by Will 
Richardson gives a brief description about the book and highlights its 
importance in giving a practical insight and food for thought about 
educational tools for the read/write web. Conference announcements 
include the third annual conference by IST-Africa to be held in May 2008 
at Windhoek, Namibia. IST-Africa is a multi-stakeholder initiative 
focused on issues like training to reduce the digital divide; skills 
transfer to support research capacity building and awareness; community 
building to support EU-African Research Cooperation; and successful 
exploitation of research results by industry, small and medium sized 
businesses and the public sector. Over the past three years, IST-Africa 
has trained over 1,000 government officials and researchers in Botswana, 
South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania in key areas including 
eGovernment, eHealth, eLearning. Other conferences mentioned include the 
4th International Conference on e-Government (ICEG 2008) in Melbourne, 
Australia, and the 10th IFIP Conference whose theme is "Assessing the 
Contribution of ICT to Development Goals".

We hope you will find this issue interesting and we look forward to 
receiving your feedback on the same. We welcome your contributions for 
the forthcoming issue of the IFIP WG 9.4 Newsletter. Interested 
contributors are requested to refer to the guidelines for authors 
available at: http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/guidelines.htm or may 
mail us at: ifipnewsletter at iimahd.ernet.in

The February 2008 Issue can be directly accessed at: 
http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/feb2008/feb2008.htm. A downloadable 
PDF version of this Issue is also available on our website (URL: 
http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/feb2008/feb2008.pdf) to ease access 
and facilitate printing.

With Best Regards,
Editorial Team, IFIP WG 9.4 Newsletter.

Editorial office:
Centre for Electronic Governance,
Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad - 380 015, India
Tel.: +91 79 2632 4128
URL: http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/wg.htm